By Joel Bowman, on April 15th, 2012%
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In a recent opinion piece in the Washington Post (Liberals and conservatives don’t just vote differently. They think differently.), Chris Mooney addressed some of the reasons the differences between liberals and conservatives have become so acrimonious over the past few election cycles. According to Mooney, “There’s now a large body of evidence showing that those who opt for the political left and those who opt for the political right tend to process information . . . → Read More: Possibilities and Necessities
By Joel Bowman, on January 1st, 2012% One of the things I’ve been paying increasing attention to (perhaps because of the ongoing political debate in the U.S.) is fear marketing. I find it amazing at how pervasive “fear appeals” are and the various ways they are used to sell “stuff,” including politicians and political “talking points.” The basic concept is that we really need to be afraid of X, and, if we want to be safe, we need to stock up on (or vote for) the anti-X.
The world has a lot of risky stuff in it, of course, and we are undoubtedly safer when we . . . → Read More: Selling Fear in the New Year
By Joel Bowman, on October 14th, 2011% I am finding the growing discontent represented by the “Occupy Wall Street” movement interesting in a couple of ways. First, unlike the “Tea Partiers,” who were reasonably well-focused in their demands for lower taxes and smaller government, the “Occupy Wall Street” group—groups at this point, as they are currently (as of 13 Oct 2011) in 103 cities in 37 States and a number of other locations around the world—do not have well-organized, uniform talking points. Our friends the media pundits don’t know how to respond to them because, other than their sheer numbers, it’s hard for them to find a . . . → Read More: Occupying Wall Street
By Joel Bowman, on June 4th, 2011% With apologies to the Beatles and “A Day in the Life”:
One of my daily habits is reading through the major online news sources to get a sense of what is happening here in the U.S. and in the world. I often find it fascinating to see what subjects are drawing the most media attention—and the kind of attention they are attracting. Here’s a brief round-up of recent “stuff”:
Placebos are in the news (again): One of the things I find most interesting about placebos is that articles about them written by medical doctors studiously avoid the word . . . → Read More: I Read the News Today (Oh, Boy)
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